New tracking site seeks to kill right-wing bills

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By Travis Fain

Raleigh, N.C. — A Durham woman fed up with the General Assembly and the lack of attention it tends to get from young people has created a website to track and push back against key legislation.

Killthebill.com gets its targets and analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy North Carolina, the Southern Environmental Law Center and other left-leaning partners. It highlights a few dozen bills put up by the legislature's Republican majority and seeks to organize opposition.

There's a "testify" button meant to collect the names of people willing to attend committee hearings and speak out on bills, particularly on immigration measures. Founder Kelly Garvy said she's working on updates that will make it easier to track bills by email and for users to reach out to legislators by email, telephone and social media.

She's working to have upgrades in place ahead of the legislature's return to session Aug. 3, or soon after.

Garvy said she started an Indivisible group after President Donald Trump's election last year. Those are grassroots organizations that popped up around the country after the election, tied together by a national training guide written by former congressional staffers. But Garvy said she also wanted to learn about the state legislature. She found that even dedicated activists on national issues had "no idea where to start with state stuff."

After hustling on short notice to a General Assembly committee meeting earlier this year to testify against an immigration bill, only to find out the committee wouldn't hear public testimony that day, Garvy started her website. She said she hopes it will particularly appeal to young people who don't read state political news.

Garvy said she may eventually try to get sponsors for the site but said that, so far, she's paid to develop it herself, linking to analysis from various nonprofits and leaning on them for bill suggestions.

"I've sold a bunch of stuff in my house to pay for people to develop it, and I've done it pretty lean," she said. "We really, really have to pay attention to state legislatures."